Sounding board for pianos



W. H. M. SIEGEL Aug. 7, 1928.

soUNDING BOARD FOR PIANos Flled July 5 1924 Patented Aug.' 7, 1928.

UmuD-STATES PATENTOFFICE-- WILLIAM HENRY 'ivrnniron sincriin,f or smania, NEAR HAMBURG, GERMANY,

" l jsoUNDING noannjror; "PIANos Object of they/invention istofimprove the tone of the instrument with regard to firmness and length of sound, which object will be obtained by firmly attaching to the usual wooden ribs being provided on the rear face of the wooden sound board struts in such a manner that they adhere with a fiat face to the sound board just in t-he rear of the usual bridge and with a straight edge to the adjacent rib. The attaching of said sound board to the adjacent parts is effected by gluing or by means of pins, wood-screws or by both agencies or the like. l

The struts can be carried out in such a manner that they are of curved, segmental, or angular' contour or completely fill the spaces between each two adjacent ribs just in the rear of the ribs.

The improvement of the tone is created by the fact that the` ribs are securely fixed at the section point where they are crossing the bridges in such a way that the stiftening is transposed upon the middle field between the ribs.

It `has been proposed already -to employ stiffening ribs on the sound `boards said ribs being connected by transverse ribs, but these latter were only for the purpose of stiftening and straining the first said ribs. It has also been proposed to use struts between the usual ribs but these struts have been attached only to the sound board with their bottom face without touching said ribs.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and showing7 for purposes of exemplification, a preferred form and manner in which my invention may be embodied and practised, but without limiting the claimed invention to such illustrative instance:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of a piano showing diagrammatically the location of the sound-board therein; Figure 2 is a rear view of the sound-board constructed in accordance with my invention; Figure 3 is a section on the line III- III of Figure 2;

Fivure 4 represents a partial section on the i line IV--IV of Figure 3;Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing a modified embodiment of my invention; Figure 6 illustrates a section on the line VI-VI of Figure 5; Figure 7 represents a partial section on the line VII-VII of Figure 6 and Figure 8 is a fragmentary illustration of the sound-board showing struts of a modified form.

i Application led .Tuly 5, 1924, Serial Noi-724,322, andn Germany May 3, 1924."

Parts that yare repeated 1in the several figures bear the 'same reference characters in each case. v i r In the drawingsna is the` wooden sound?- board which, as. hereinbefore stated, is shown diagrammatically in Figure 1 so that the construction and arrangement of the struts cannot be Seen which7 however, are

clearly depicted in the other figures. b is the usual bridge on the front side of the sound-board and supplemental bridges `such as b', may be provided if desired. The bridges are attached to the sound-board by gluing or by means ,of pins, wood-screws or by both agencies. The ribs or strips c made of wood are of conventional shape and arranged in parallelism transversely over the rear face of the sound-board so as to cross` the direction of the stay or bridges provided on the opposite or front face of Vthe board.

The struts d are flat pieces vof wood of segmental shape as in Figure 2 or of triangular shape as in Figure 8, and they are firmly attached with a fiat, plane face to the sound-board and with a straight edge to the `adjacent rib just in the rearof `the usual bridge', In'some cases, however,l I prefer tov employ wooden bodiesof any suitable contour, such as d shownV in Figure 5 by way of example, which fill completelythe spaces between each two adjacent ribs.

It is not necessary to give all of thev struts the same shape, contour or size. Thesize of the bodies may gradually decrease in conormity with the diminishing length of the ribs as will be seen in Figure 2 or bodies of diierent shape may be employed on one and tlie'same vsound-board, as shown in Figure 5.

By the use of the limitation struts in the specification and claims it is not intended to imply `that such struts aremerely strengthening members, but as applied to the structure they have a musical value in that they produce .a resonant eifect.

What I claim is: i

1. A sound board for use in pianos comprising a wooden board, wooden ribs on one face of said board. and struts having a fiat faceV firmly attached to the sound board just inthe rear of` the usual bridge, said struts having a straight flat side edge firmly attached to a wooden rib.

2. A sound board for use in pianos comprising a wooden board, wooden ribs on the rear face of said board, bridges secured to the opposite face-ofthe board, struts of segmental angular contour firmly attached with the flat face to the sound board just in the rear of a bridge, and having a straight flat edge firmly 'secured to'an adjacentrib.

3. A sound board for use in-pianos comprising a Wooden board, Wooden ribs on the rear face 0f said board, a bridgeseeured-to the opposite face of said board, struts havinga fiat face firmly attached just in the rear ofthe bridge andhaving a straight fiat edge, and means for firmly securing the flat edge of the struts'tolan edge of a rib.

prising a Wooden board, Wooden ribs on theV rear face of said board, bridges secured to Vthe front face of said board, struts, means for rmly attaching the'st-'ruts having a fiat face, means for securing the flatfaee of a Strut to the sound board justin the rear of a bridge, saidstruts each havinga flat side secured to an edge'of a rib, each strut being locatedupon oppositeedges of the rib and completely filling the space between each pair of` adjacent ribs. s s

WILLIAM HENRY MERITON SIEGEL. 

